


Blame

by Glory1863



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: 221B Ficlet, Alternate Universe - World War I, Gen, RMS Lusitania, Sherlock Holmes (1916 film)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-07-20 03:23:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7388551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glory1863/pseuds/Glory1863
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sherlock Holmes would never blame John Watson for having travelled in such dangerous times and for such a trivial errand.  Neither could he bring himself to blame his brother Mycroft, though a case could certainly be made.  That left the blame to fall on Winston Churchill, his brother's best student.  Future historians might not disagree.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blame

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Casualty Clearing Station No. 59](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7358713) by [gardnerhill](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gardnerhill/pseuds/gardnerhill). 



> For some reason, reading fics involving Holmes and Watson in World War I really get to me. Please check out gardnerhill's excellent "Casualty Clearing Station No. 59" which led me to add (unofficially) to Watson's Woes.

He’s an old man now, past 80, his faculties not as they once were, but he remembers the contents of the creased and faded telegram in his jacket pocket:

“Contracts signed to bring cases to the silver screen. Studio in negotiations with William Gillette to play lead.  Barring difficulties, film to be released this time next year.  Returning Liverpool about May 8.  Hun warnings be d____d.”

Viewed from the Old Head of Kinsale, the ship was magnificent, then two explosions and horror. Bodies washed onshore for days, many unidentifiable, but some were never found.

Another May, a quarter century removed, and the Hun were on the march again. Good authority had it Chamberlain would resign.  Rumor held that the First Lord of the Admiralty, now as he was then, was waiting in the wings. 

Winston Churchill had always been the brightest and most ruthless of brother Mycroft’s students, adept at the dark governmental arts of scheming, plotting and conniving. What tricks would he use this time to bring the Americans in on England’s side in the war that was surely coming?  False flags?  Dangerous and illicit cargo?  Lack of escort?  Which ship and who would die?

Because he couldn’t bring himself to blame his brother, Sherlock Holmes blamed Churchill’s duplicity for sending the _RMS Lusitania_ and John Watson to the bottom.  


End file.
